Putting it All Together

Having read the text line-by-line, we can now look at the document
as a whole. The transliteration of the text, before restoration
or resolution of abbreviations, reads as follows:

As we read through the text we found that about half of each line
is lost, but in many cases we could make educated guesses as to
the content of the lost text. These guesses, put together, form
the following reconstructed text (taken from Bruckner and Marichal):

This reconstruction cannot be expected to be perfect; the words
and formulae inserted here are drawn from other texts which are
similar, but by no means identical. However, the reconstruction
gives us a much better idea of the form of the document and what
it is saying. Translated into English, the contract reads:

In the consulship of N1 and N2, on the 12th day before the Kalends
of March, I, N3, a soldier in the Augustan fleet on the warship
N4, have written that I have received from N5 and N6, soldiers
in the Augustan fleet on the warship N7, X denari, which I will
repay, with interest, from my wages to them or to the executor
of their estates or their heir. Done in Caesarea, in the winter
camp of the Augustan fleet, on the ship N.
(signed by N3, cheirograph=private agreement)

While much of this text is conjecture, it is not far-fetched. The
essential parts of the document can be found in the extant text:
a statement of accepting something (likely a monetary loan); a reference
to the fleet; a source of funds (stipendium); the geographic
location; and the word cheirographo. Much of what has been
lost is the names of the parties involved. The word tutela
is used here interchangably with liburna; a tutela
was the sculputre of a protective deity on a ship, from which vessels
often drew their names.

Contracts such as this one are relatively common among the papyri.
Although it is impossible to tell how much of the text was lost
on the bottom edge, it seems likely, based on other examples, that
the contract would be recopied in Greek. While Latin was the official
language of the military, most soldiers from Egypt would speak Greek
as their first language.

Please continue to the next page to complete this segment of Reading
the Papyri.